The Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Sidney

BEWARE OCEAN VIEW ROOM #315 INFESTED! Beautiful location with great food at Haro's. Very convenient to local shops and restaurants. BAD NEWS: condition of the room and careless management is trouble and detrimental.

We arrived after midnight during the week. Unfortunately, our ocean view room #315 was infested with bugs. As soon as we arrived, we saw a large bug on the wall which we swatted and killed with the phone note pad (the night manager said mosquitoes were common).

Ten minutes later we pulled down the comforter to go to bed and noticed hair and dark particles on the top sheet. We called the night manager and insisted he bring up replacement bedding/sheets since the bed was not made with clean sheets. When he came up to our room we showed him the hair and particles using our cell phone flash light to light up the bed. He was indifferent. He then handed us a stack of sheets so we could make the bed---he said he wasn't sure if the sheets were the right size since he had to round them up. He was detached and couldn't be bothered.

The next morning, I woke up with a terrible raised bump/bite on my right hand. Called downstairs and told Lisa at the front desk what happened (Night Manager never relayed any information). She offered us a $50 restaurant credit to compensate. I borrowed band aids from the front desk for the bite on my finger.

The following morning I received two more bites. Large with white heads--almost look like spider bites (they have since become infected). Each morning, I informed the front desk staff and borrowed more band aids to cover my bites. No one came up to check the bedding or room--no one apologized to us whatsoever.

When we checked out on Friday morning, we took the time to leave long, written feedback as well as several phone messages for General Manager Natalie King (told she was 'in a meeting'). Finally received call back on Sunday after leaving another message. She was rude and combative when we inquired as to findings by pest control inspection. She had every excuse as to why she never returned any of our messages two days prior. We wanted to know what type of bug infestation so we could get proper medical care at home. (She claims they found nothing, but it was clear that no pest control service inspected the room or mattress.)

If you stay there, do not get room #315. No guarantee they have treated mattress infestation. If you have any problems, the General Manager will not help you. She is a very nasty, rude and revengeful person. Never once did she say sorry for the occurence.

Also notable: the toilet was not clean when we checked into our room, but we assume they use eco friendly cleaning products on their bathrooms which would explain mold and...

The good: • Very nice, clean, modern property • Stunning views! • Super quiet, peaceful hotel (occasional noise from band shell and lawn) • Excellent location. Very convenient, and wow! Sidney and Beacon street are beautiful

The bad: • Large gap under door (like almost every hotel) that allows lots of disruptive light in. You’d never put up with this at home • A number of bright, disruptive lights you would, again, never put up with in your bedroom at home; cable box, smoke detector, etc. • No daily housekeeping. You have to justify wanting your room serviced. Note to management: block rooms so you can service guests with the staff you have. Stop trying to make the same revenue and reduce services with less staff and make up the difference on the back of guests • Only a single roll of TP in the bathroom. And since rooms aren’t routinely serviced, you have to go hunt for replacement rolls • Have someone on the night shift walk the halls and pick up trash – especially since there is no daily housekeeping. Guests are encouraged to put trash out in hallways… and then it sits there until as late as 9 am the next day • No microwave oven in the room • Rooms have a “chilling unit” – NOT a refrigerator. And they are useless as they keep nothing cold! A desk clerk, when asked, specifically said; “…each room has a refrigerator.” This statement is flatly untrue • 10 Acre café. It is inside the building and connected to the lobby and overflow seating. It is promoted by the hotel. But you cannot charge food to your room. Fail. -- Bacon breakfast sandwich was good. Avoid egg bites. Odd taste - finishing notes of cleaning solvent • Tip envelopes in the room meant for housekeepers. This is wrong. The property should pay housekeepers a living wage instead of expecting guests to pick up the difference. Guests are supposed to leave a tip for once-in-eight-days service? The rates are already pretty pricey but service has cratered. • Television wall mount does not pivot so it is unable to be watched from any position in the room besides the bed • Ice machines only on 2 and 4. So floors 3, 5, 6, and 7 get to go find ice • I moved the waste baskets and table in the room to facilitate my work. The one day out of eight I could get the room serviced; everything was rearranged back. I arranged it that way for a reason. Please leave alone until I check out • Very limited in-room TV...

From the initial booking to greeting us at reception, Cristina was so helpful and eager to help us regarding our request for a wheelchair accessible room. She asked for our feedback on the same for future room updates and she even called around to several taxi companies one evening to secure us an accessible taxi for an evening out with some local friends. The room itself was excellent in terms of accessibility for "our" specific needs traveling with a manual wheelchair. The room was quite large with ample room for maneuvering a wheelchair and the also very large bathroom had a newer looking roll-in shower with a wide, attached shower bench, a roll-under sink and adequate room and safety bars by the toilet for safe transferring. I cannot comment on bed height or under-bed space that some wheelchair users require for transferring and/or for other mobility-related equipment as these features are not an issue for us specifically. The small town of Sidney is extremely charming with many local shops, coffee spots and restaurants within walking & rolling distance and it was so convenient that the ferry terminal is only about 10 minutes from the hotel. We would not hesitate to recommend this hotel and look forward to returning in the future. P.S. ALL the staff we encountered from reception to house-keeping were great - we just happened to have had Cristina on shift during most of our stay. She really is an asset to your staffing (and she has a very fun sense...